Garage Handplanes to sponsor the bodysurf division for the Noosa Surf Festival 2016

November 04, 2015

FESTIVAL NEWS

THE BODY BASH IS BACK

Body surfing will be back on the menu for the 25th Anniversary Noosa Festival of Surfing.

Joining the festival for the first time, Sydney-based bodysurf aficionados Garage Handplanes have come onboard as division sponsors and are thrilled at the prospect.

“For us, the most important thing about the Noosa Festival is the sense of community that the festival encourages,” says Garage Handplanes founder, Dave Archer. “The event is a good opportunity for bodysurfers from all over both Australia and the world to meet each other and have fun. This is one of the philosophies behind Garage – we want to foster the bodysurfing community and spread the stoke!”

35 years ago, Dave – an Avalon-based part-time volunteer surf lifesaver - received a handplane as a Christmas gift from his grandmother and immediately became a bodysurfing devotee. After almost thirty faithful years, the antiquated plane passed away and Dave was forced to develop a replacement.

“I went on a journey to replace it and found nothing on the market that came close.

“I started trying to make my own. Pretty soon, people started asking if I could make them a handplane. I would then spend weekends crafting boards for others to share the stoke. It was really my wife, Tanya, who suggested that I should use my growing skill for the greater good; at that moment, Garage Handplanes was born.”

From its backyard origins, Garage Handplanes has grown into one of the world’s leading bodysurfing brands with an international stable of talented sliders on its ambassador list, including last year’s festival winner, Tom Marr.

Our Ambassador Programme has been a big success,” Dave shares. “We have 12 ambassadors around the world who help promote not only Garage, but bodysurfing in general. [Current World Champion] Tom Marr, our local Queensland ambassador, and an amazing role model, not only won Noosa last year, but he then went on to win a number of competitions in the USA, including a world title - we couldn’t be more proud!”

Bodysurfing has seen a significant rise in recent years due in part, as Dave points out, to Keith Malloy’s bodysurfing movie, and former festival screening, ‘Come Hell or High Water’, as well as high profile surfers, such as Kelly Slater and Dave Rastovich, advocating the alternative surfing method. But the global tribe of dedicated bodysurfers is beginning to grow, and last year’s Noosa Festival saw an exceptionally high level of international competitors.

As devoted to their way of riding waves as any stand-up surfer, the third year of the Body Bash will welcome back many of the international contingent.

“Last year, the Del Mar Bodysurfing Club organised a tour and participated in the Noosa comp,” Dave recalls. “Since then I have visited Del Mar and been hosted by the people I met. It’s comps like Noosa that bring people together, and that is what makes it special.”

The Noosa Festival of Surfing is stoked to welcome Garage Handplanes on board and to announce that entries are now officially open for the Garage Handplanes Body Bash 2016. To enter, please visit our festival website – www.noosafestivalofsurfing.com.

For more information about Garage Handplanes, its products and its ambassadors, go to www.garagehandplanes.com.au.